The Cured (4/5)

The Curedis a brilliant new zombie movie and we absolutely love it. In this movie, some of the zombies can be cured and are about to be reintroduced into society.

The Cured is a zombie horror movie in the style of 28 Days Later but set in Ireland. In other words, there’s plenty of horror and zombies, but also elements of drama and thriller.

Plotwise, we arrive after the virus, but unlike 28 Days Later, the outbreak is now under control. In fact, a cure has been found, which brings the majority of affected back to their normal human state.

There is, however, one major problem; They remember everything they did as zombies. Whether they killed family members, strangers or babies, it’s a vivid memory. Not surprisingly, this results in many depressions and suicides among the cured.

Also, a lot of people are concerned that maybe they aren’t completely cured. And nobody wants a second outbreak.

You can watch the trailer for The Cured right here or continue reading our review below.

What makes a zombie?

For the record, let’s just get into the question of what a zombie is. I know some people will say that you cannot be “cured” of being a zombie because you’ll be dead. And yes, originally, zombies were the living dead (or the walking dead, if you will).

Basically, when you became infected (i.e. bitten) by a zombie, you would die and then “wake up” as a zombie.

However, in more recent movies, being a zombie (or zombie-like) has been treated as more of a virus. In 28 Days Later, people didn’t die before turning into zombies. Will Smith struggles to find a cure in I Am Legend, where zombies are also treated as infected humans to be healed. And Brad Pitt allows himself to get infected to retrieve what he believes is the cure in World War Z.

Often, the word “zombie” is used interchangeably with “infected”. And really, as long as the movies are good, I don’t have any pet peeves about this. So call them infected or zombies, it’s all the same to me.

The animal inside

In The Cured, those who have been cured seem to have a connection. Whether this connection is simply the shared trauma or something more, is the real question.

What we do know is that the cured are no longer in danger of getting infected again. Apparently, they still have the scent of already having the infection and so the zombies aren’t interested in them.

And yes, zombies are still in the world. After discovering that humans could be cured, it wasn’t exactly popular to continue killing the infected. Not unless your own life was on the line.

The primary star of The Cured is Sam Keeley. We follow him as he is reintroduced to society as a cured person. Most of the cured people move from the hospital to a halfway house. Either because they have no family or because the family is afraid of them. After all, they may have witnessed this person try to kill family members.

However, Sam Keely’s character is lucky since his sister-in-law (Ellen Page) takes him in. She has a son but lost her husband during the outbreak. And yes, we get an explanation as to why an American is still in Ireland.

In general, people are not crazy about having any cured people in their neighborhood. Many of the cured ones aren’t crazy about being alive with their memories either. But taking on a father role to his nephew helps our protagonist carry on.

A brilliant addition to the genre

It’s fascinating to see Sam Keely portray a cured person trying to return from the horrible things he’s done. PTSD is a big part of it for both the cured and those who managed to fight off the infected. However, the real issues are at the hospital.

One of my favorite characters was played by Paula Malcomson (Katniss’ mom in The Hunger Games). She’s a doctor trying to find a cure for her wife. Her wife was also a doctor and helped find the original cure. Unfortunately, she was infected and turned out to be in need of a different kind of cure. Along with +5.000 other infected.

Also, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Peaky Blinders) is brilliant as a cured person, who cannot return to his old life. His family wants nothing to with him. He came from money and all he can get now is a job cleaning, so he’s making plans to even the playing field.

The Cured was written and directed by David Freyne and he has given us a brilliant addition to the zombie genre. This is the first feature film for David Freyne as both writer and director. He has made several short horror films in the past – including The First Wave (2014), which The Cured is based on.

Hopefully, he will gift us horror fans with many more horror movies in the future. Especially if The Cured is any indication of his style. You do not want to miss this one!

Plot

A disease that turns people into zombies has been cured. The once-infected zombies are discriminated against by society and their own families, which causes social issues to arise. This leads to militant government interference.

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

About The Author

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!